New proposals could, for the first time, link every vehicle on the road directly to a driver's licence as authorities try to clampdown on penalty point dodgers. Under the proposals, car owners would be required to present their licence when they purchase a car (new or used) so that the vehicle can be linked to that licence.
Once collected the information would be placed on a central register accessible by An Garda Síochána, the Road Safety Authority and the Courts Service for use in the allocation of penalty points and tracking disqualified drivers.
The move is seen as a solution to the problem of more than 20,000 convicted motorists avoiding penalty points by failing to produce their driver's licence and is said to have been extensively discussed by a working group comprising the Department of Justice, Department of Transport, An Garda Síochána, the Courts Service and the Road Safety Authority (RSA).